Turbocharge and Boulevard
Turbocharge and Boulevard
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Engine Shed, the only monthly update from within the Hornby development team. This month’s edition features a glimpse at the first engineering sample of the LMS Turbomotive and we will take a walk down Skaledale High Street, looking at some of the forthcoming additions to the building range.
The Turbo
Recently, this fantastic hobby has seen an increase from Hornby of obscure and unique models. These additions are most welcome due to their uniqueness with examples such as the LNER Hush Hush or Stephenson’s Rocket proving the point. To this end, we were pleased to announce a continuation of the theme in the 2023 range with the LMS Turbomotive, the first time that such a model has been created in a ready to run form in any scale. The sample is here and it looks very interesting.
There is a caveat here (there is always a caveat!), this is the first engineering sample and as such its primary purpose is to test and prove the mechanism works. As such, you may note that it is missing some fairly crucial detailing parts like the smokebox dart, two of the 4 lamp irons, buffers and coupling hooks. This locomotive does have the body fitted, to prove that the mechanism works with the approximate weight of the finished model on top of the chassis. Incidentally, in case you were wondering, the locomotive runs very well, smooth and quiet. The running speed is impressive but requires some adjustment, and as soon as that is done we will receive our second, much more detailed sample.
The Turbomotive was supposed to be Stanier’s masterstroke, built in 1935 and inspired by the work of Swedish engineer Fredrik Ljungstrom. The locomotive used turbines in place of the standard cylinders with steam pumped into them via valves in the cab. The locomotive was somewhat of a success, much more so than many other experimental locomotives at the time and survived in service for 14 years before it was side-lined by a turbine failure. The locomotive was subsequently rebuilt as Coronation Class 46202 ‘Princess Anne’, surviving in service for only two months before being destroyed in the Harrow and Wealdstone rail accident, such was the force of the crash (which also destroyed the leading engine, the Jubilee Class 45637 ‘Winward Islands’).
As you may be able to see from the amount of diecast on the locomotive body, this is quite a weighty model. This is in fact our heaviest steam locomotive ever (not including the Hornby Dublo models, both old and new). Apart from the cab structure, the tender body and certain small details the entirety of the locomotives boiler, chassis and running plate are all formed from diecast.
One of the more interesting features of this locomotive is at the front, below the smokebox door. Below this quite standard round door there is a more peculiar rectangular flap above a mesh grille. The Turbomotive required air cooling for the oil lubricator pump, and this grille was the air intake with the top flap raising up on hinges to force as much air as possible through the grille and to the area occupied by the oil lubricator pump. On the Hornby model, this is an etched metal piece and one that hinges being poseable as to preference.
Skaledale
Moving on from the Turbomotive. We turn our heads toward some of our Skaledale buildings planned for the 2022 range. Some people love to just lay their track on a baseboard and consider that as layout complete, however, there are more who like to create scenes on their layout with some years adding and taking away scenery. For those that wish to quickly add buildings to their layout, Hornby offers the Skaledale range of painted resin buildings; some of the samples are illustrated here.
The first building of note is the Southern style railway station building, typical of the kind that would be found all the way from Kent through to Penzance.
The image above shows the same station building but paired with the station house, making quite a structure to dominate any station scene.
As a perfect complement to the above, we also have this attractive signal box. All of the Skaledale buildings, where appropriate, have clear acrylic windows, allowing interiors to be crafted and added as well as lighting should they be desired.
Skaledale also has items catering towards those with limited space or those who wish to enhance their back scene, with these urban style low relief viaduct pieces complete with inset garages or lock ups below. These do not need to be low relief, however, if each pack of two is placed back to back as per how they are displayed here, a trench in the top of the piece allows the track to be realistically laid along the top. This in turn allows the viaduct to serve its intended purpose.
Message from Montana
Montana is currently out of the office at Dorset Steam Fair so she will give you a doubly long update in the next Engine Shed. In the meantime, she would like to share a whole host of images from the event so far. Enjoy!
For all the latest product updates be sure to sign up to our newsletter and keep up to speed on all the marketing activities taking place on social media via any or all of the below channels!
And with that, we reach the end of the line for this edition of Engine Shed, I hope you have found it interesting. It’s been my birthday this month, I am now old. As I am sure you can imagine, a lot of railway presents were given to me which I am very grateful for.
If you would like Engine Shed to cover a specific subject in a future blog or if you have any images of your locomotives and coaching stock in action, or maybe you have a suggestion of a particular model that you think we should produce in the future, please do let us know. We are always keen to receive all feedback.
Be sure to follow Hornby on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram to be kept up to date on all the latest news and product updates. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Hornby YouTube channel and tune in to our Beyond the Buffers Podcast.
Happy Modelling!
The Engine Shed Team
Return to Engine Shed homepage
© Hornby Hobbies Ltd. All rights reserved.